References to Greek Mythology in Margaret Atwood's Poem "Orpheus (1)"

Margaret Atwood's "Orpheus (1)" criticizes the mythical lover Orpheus for his self-centered need disguised as love. Accustomed to manipulating both gods and mortals with the charm of his singing voice, Orpheus forces Eurydice to leave Hades without considering her desires.With evidence throughout the poem and a summary in the final line, Atwood shows that Orpheus loses Eurydice a second time because of his inability to regard her as an individual with free will rather than simply the object of his desire.

In the original Greek myth, Orpheus has a singing voice unrivaled by any mortal or god: "There was no limit to his power when he played and sang. No one and nothing could resist him" (Hamilton 139). Having lost Eurydice to the sting of a viper immediately after their marriage, Orpheus travels to the world of the dead to rescue her. Rather than pleading with Pluto to release Eurydice, Orpheus uses his musical power to render the Lord of the Dead helpless (140). Unable to resist the charm of Orpheus's song, Pluto allows Orpheus to take Eurydice back to the land of the living. (Hamilton's choice of words is telling: "They summoned Eurydice and gave her to him" [italics mine], as if merely transferring ownership of an object [141].) However, Pluto sets one condition-Orpheus must not look at her until they have left the Underworld. Eurydice follows Orpheus up out of Hades, but he turns to look at her a moment too soon, when she has not yet stepped out into the daylight. She mutters "Farewell" and fades back into the darkness (141).

Atwood examines the myth from the viewpoint of Eurydice, who addresses Orpheus after the fact in a halfhearted attempt to explain where he has gone wrong. Atwood begins the poem at the point in which Eurydice is following Orpheus on the physical journey out of Hades, being "pull[ed] back out / to the green light that had once / grown fangs and killed me" (106). Atwood's word choice sets the tone of the poem. Eurydice describes herself as "obedient" and "numb" (106) and as a mere "hallucination" (107). She is literally disembodied, unable to relate to Orpheus's "flesh voice," and she feels like an extremity rather than a whole person, describing herself as "numb, like an arm / gone to sleep" (106). In referring to the world that had "once" killed her, she indicates her distance from the world of the living despite the brief time that has actually passed since she left it (106). This distance from the passions of life is also shown in the line, "I knew how this failure would hurt you" (107), as Eurydice experiences a thought regarding Orpheus's well-being rather than an emotion. Eurydice's brief re-experiencing of life takes place only in terms of the unpleasant sensations of dirt and thirst (107).

Eurydice makes no decisions about her fate. Passive verbs show her lack of power: "I was obedient," "the return / to time was not my choice," "I was used to silence" (106), "I was your hallucination," "I had to / fold like a gray moth" (107). Even her action in following Orpheus is presented passively: "It was this hope of yours that kept me following" (106). In her ghostly state, she experiences no emotion, referring to the weak bond between the lovers as "something [that] stretched between us" (106). It is not affection that leads Eurydice to follow Orpheus out of Hades, only a compulsion-an "old leash" that she does not view as love, regardless of what he "might call it" (106). Her only actions in the poem, "following" and "fold[ing]," are reactions to Orpheus's desires. The frequent use of the words "you" and "me" contrasts with a single appearance of "us" and the absence of "we."

Because the earthly bond between them has been lost, Eurydice and Orpheus cannot see each other clearly. To Eurydice, Orpheus is not someone she loves or follows willingly, and she is not even granted a clear view of him as they make their way back up to the daylight; he is only an "outline / of… head and shoulders," "a dark oval" with an indistinct face (107). For Orpheus, Eurydice exists only as "the image of what you wanted / me to become" (106), not a living entity but a memory of the woman he loved on earth; he cannot acknowledge the change she has undergone through death and so insists on recreating her according to his idealized image. She has no reality other than as his "hallucination" that he imagines to be "listening / and floral," engaging with him in a dynamic that is impossible for her because of her detached state.

Atwood demonstrates that Orpheus fails in his rescue of Eurydice because of his inability to truly see her as a person. This failure begins with his decision to manipulate Pluto by the power of his singing, including Eurydice in this manipulation through his lack of interest in the fact that she had become "used to silence" (106). In Orpheus's previous experience, "[e]verything animate and inanimate followed him when he sang" (Hamilton 139); thus, he assumes that Eurydice will follow him as well even if her time in Hades has rendered her inanimate. In fact, Orpheus is oblivious to Eurydice's reluctance and the unpleasantness of her reembodiment because he can see only his memory of her living self. However, he proves his lack of faith in that idealized version of his wife when he turns to see her a moment too soon: "You could not believe I was more than your echo" (107). Orpheus loved Eurydice enough to go to Hades to rescue her, but his love proved to be a two-dimensional desire with no element of trust or compassion, forcing her to undergo two versions of death.